Ridgewood library to charge fees for conducting business in public areas

The Ridgewood Public Library is among the first in North Jersey to start imposing fees on tutors, agencies or other organizations that conduct business in the public areas of the library.

Fees range from $40 for the first two hours to more than $200 depending on the size of the space needed and the type of business using the space. For instance, a Ridgewood-based non-profit would pay $50 for a conference room for the first two hours, but an out-of-town non-profit would pay $75.

Fees for private tutors have not yet been set. However, the library has started asking tutors to register with the reference desk. The move is intended to provide more space for other library patrons and simultaneously help make up for cuts in municipal funding.

“What we are finding in recent years is that small business operators come to meet with their clients throughout the library and our residents have been complaining for some time about the lack of table space for families and students,” Library Director Nancy Greene said.

It’s a move that could spur additional libraries to follow suit.

“Other libraries are still discussing what to do about the tutor ‘situation’ in Bergen County,” said Robert W. White, executive director of the Bergen County Cooperative Library System. “It’s not surprising that Ridgewood is not going to let these entrepreneurs continue without some sort of response or let them seize the space without some sort of compensation to the library.

“The library is not a pure free speech area,” he said. “The Library Board has the right to declare the rules of conduct. It becomes a very real issue because Ridgewood is one of the most stressed libraries because of its limited parking.”

A fee for use of the new private business center for two-person meetings — designed for tutors and students — will be established in February, Greene said. Users must register and access the space through daily or monthly fees for passes.

“At this point we’re just registering tutors … the fee for pairs is under discussion,” Greene said. “We’re not charging anything until February.”

There are a number of tutors who use the library after school hours, she said

“On Tuesday between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. there were 11 pairs working together at the library,” Greene said.

Tutors working with a student are not likely to rent a $75 space for two hours.

“That’s why we’re looking at a reasonable day rate,” Greene said. “We just started this and we’re just getting our toes wet. We’re trying to accommodate the rights of our residents and set aside more areas for private businesses.”

Teaneck’s library board attempted to ban such entrepreneurship from the facility a few years ago but failed. After school, much of the library space — which is open and about half the size of the Ridgewood’s — was being taken up by private tutors.

“The library board felt this public space should not be used for public gain,” Teaneck Library Director Mike McCue said.

The move to ban failed because legal advisers told the library that the nature of business of two people sitting at a table could not be determined as entrepreneurial or tutoring, McCue said.

“The problem became enforcement,” he said.

Still, McCue knows that money is being made at the library by private tutors.

“I hear the cash register each and every time I walk by,” he said. “The general public probably thinks the person there is a volunteer or parent and doesn’t realize money is changing hands.”

Victoria Petrock, a librarian and Ho-Ho-Kus resident, sends her children ages 9 and 11 to the Ridgewood library once a week with the family’s homework helper/babysitter. Petrock was surprised when a Ridgewood library employee on Tuesday asked the young woman to fill out a form.

“They are going to have to more clearly differentiate between a babysitter who sits at a table and reads a book with a child or a babysitter who assists a school age child with using library resources to get his or her homework done,” Petrock said.

The helper does not receive tutor wages and it routine for her to take the children to the library each week, Petrock said.

“I have a caregiver sitting with my children,” she said. “She was asked to fill out a form. She left the library with the children because they kept coming back to her to ask if she filled it out. My kids were in disbelief.”

Where is the line drawn, Petrock asked.

“The library is a great environment,” said Petrock, a member of the Special Libraries Association and American Library Association. “I would think that’s where you want your children to be. They targeted someone studying with kids.”

But for Ridgewood, the fees mean new income — sorely needed to maintain the library, Greene said.

“We’re opening additional areas for potential private business use,” she said. “We’ve established rates for those areas.”

The library typically receives about $2 million from the village, Green said. This year, there is a $77,000 funding cut, she said.

The fee policy addresses the needs of village residents and small business operators, Greene said.

“We recognize an increasing need for small business operators to have as place to work with their clients,” Greene said. “At the same time we recognize that the small business operators use the tables for hours and use them to speak to their clients. It takes public space away from the purpose the library is maintained for.”

The policy — approved by the Ridgewood Library Board — states that public areas are not available for private business transactions or meetings and that the library is not to be used as a temporary or permanent office for those not employed or working as volunteers at the library.

“We have to treat all private business operators the same,” Greene said, citing insurance stipulations as a consideration for its implementation. “If there is money being exchanged as a service, they can’t do it in public areas in the library.”

Since its renovation several years ago, the library on North Maple Avenue has become a centerpiece and model facility in northwest Bergen.

“We’ve become very attractive for private business operators,” Greene said. “It is not difficult to spot those that are running private/commercial businesses. There are job interviews going on during the day that are using the library space.”